1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the preparation of tetramethylammonium azide, N(CH.sub.3).sub.4 N.sub.3, particularly preparing such azide without using shock-sensitive material.
2. The Prior Art
Although tetramethylammonium azide, has been known since 1918, little information has been reported for this interesting compound. According to the previous reports, the compound was prepared by either the reaction of N(CH.sub.3).sub.4 I with AgN.sub.3 (1) in either water or anhydrous EQU N(CH.sub.3).sub.4 I+AgN.sub.3 .fwdarw.N(CH.sub.3).sub.4 N.sub.3 +AgI(1)
ethanol or the neutralization of N(CH.sub.3).sub.4 OH with aqueous HN.sub.3 (2). Both preparations involve the use of shock-sensitive EQU N(CH.sub.3).sub.4 OH+HN.sub.3 .fwdarw.N(CH.sub.3).sub.4 N.sub.3 +H.sub.2 O(2)
starting materials, i.e. AgN.sub.3 and HN.sub.3, and suffer from solubility and purification problems.
Accordingly, there is a need and market for preparation the above azide that overcomes the above prior art shortcomings.
There has now been discovered a method for preparation of such azide which avoids shock-sensitive starting materials and the high costs and light sensitivity of employing a silver salt per the above prior art method. Further the purity of the resulting azide, N(CH.sub.3).sub.4 N.sub.3 is high.